Nicaragua: First Official Results Confirm Re-Election of Ortega

In the early hours of Monday, Nicaragua’s Supreme Electoral Council (CSE) President Brenda Rocha released the first official results of the presidential elections held on Sunday.

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After saying that the Nicaraguan people "have been the protagonists of the country's historic civic celebration," she announced the results of the votes counted at the national and provincial levels.

With 49.25 percent of the votes counted so far, President Daniel Ortega, who ran for reelection of the position, achieved 74.99 percent of the votes. These results will allow the Santinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) leader to exercise his fifth non-consecutive term from 2022 to 2027.

At the national level, 25 percent of the remaining valid votes were distributed as follows: Constitutional Liberal Party candidate Walter Espinoza (14.4 percent), Liberal Alliance Party candidate Marcelo Montiel (3.4 percent), Christian Road Party Guillermo Osorno (3.4 percent), Alliance for the Republic Gerson Gutierrez (2.2 percent), and Independent Liberal Party candidate Mauricio Orue (1.7 percent).

The CSE president also pointed out that 65.34 percent of 4,478,334 voters turned out to elect president, vice president, 92 lawmakers, and 20 representatives to the Central American Parliament (PARLACEN). Electoral authorities announced that the second official bulletin of the general election results will be released on Monday afternoon.

Daniel Ortega, a former Sandinista guerrilla fighter who will turn 76 on Thursday, was the coordinator of the Governing Board (1979-1985) that was formed after a popular revolution overthrew the U.S.-backed dictator Anastasio Somosa.

Later, he was democratically elected to exercise the Presidency of the Republic between 1985 and 1990. Although Ortega was defeated in the 1990 presidential election by Violeta Chamorro, he continued to be an important figure in Nicaraguan politics and returned to the presidency in 2007.